Talks aim to ease asylum tensions

CANBERRA - Indonesia's President arrived yesterday for his first official visit to Australia, where he will attempt to ease tensions between the two countries over a surge in asylum seekers using Indonesia as a launch point for Australian shores.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono grinned as he stepped off the plane and spotted a cluster of well-wishers waving Indonesian flags, stopping to shake hands with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Governor-General Quentin Bryce.

Bryce later bestowed upon the President Australia's highest civilian honour for his commitment to improving ties between the countries.

But talks between Yudhoyono and Australian officials are expected to turn more serious during his three-day visit, with the issue of asylum seekers high on the agenda. Yudhoyono is also expected to highlight the issue during his address to Parliament today.

Australia's Government has come under increasing pressure domestically to find a solution to the surge in asylum seekers arriving by boat over the past year.

Many of those vessels begin their journey in Indonesia, which has become a major launching point for Sri Lankans, Afghans and Iraqis seeking a better life in Australia.

Tension over the issue grew in October, when Indonesia and Australia struggled to figure out what to do about a group of Sri Lankan asylum seekers picked up by an Australian customs ship from a boat stranded by engine problems in Indonesian waters.

For a month, the asylum seekers refused to leave the ship, and Australia insisted they were Indonesia's responsibility. After discussions between Rudd and Yudhoyono, Indonesia eventually agreed to temporarily accept them, and some have since been sent to Australia.

Yudhoyono is scheduled to fly to Sydney tonight to meet business leaders. His visit is being used by the Australian Greens to revisit the 1975 killing of five Australia-based newsmen, including a New Zealander, in East Timor.

Known as the Balibo Five, the reporters were killed while covering the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.

No one has ever been held accountable for their deaths.

Greens leader Senator Bob Brown yesterday released a letter he sent to Rudd calling on him to act on the three-year-old findings of a coronial inquest that concluded Indonesian forces deliberately killed the journalists to cover up their invasion of East Timor.

The Australian Federal Police launched a war crimes probe into the matter last year.

"No substantive action appears to have been taken," Brown wrote.

"I ask that you raise the issue with the Indonesian President ... during his visit to Australia."

To accompany the letter, a television ad has also been released.

The advertisement not only targets Rudd, but also calls on Yudhoyono to take action by responding to the coronial findings.

The issue of the Balibo Five has long been a cause of diplomatic friction between Canberra and Jakarta, given the widely-held belief that the reporters were killed by Indonesian military forces.

- AAP, AP